Fact of the day

Information is the most powerful weapon.

Monday

Fact N°
1973

Cosmonauts bring both vodka and guns into space.

NASA doesn't exactly look favorably on mixing astronauts and alcohol, and U.S. spacecraft have never carried firearms. The Russian space program does not operate this way. Off-course landings in desolate wolf-filled tundra taught the Soviets to always bring a weapon (in this case, a unique three-barrel firearm with a removable stock, one that contains a machete). As for the vodka, evidently the cosmonauts just like to bring vodka.

Tuesday

Fact N°
1974

India Pale Ales (IPAs) were developed to get beer to desperate British soldiers.

By the mid-18th century, the British East India Company had gained a foothold in the Indian subcontinent, but the going was tough; their "divide and rule" strategy was brutal, insurrection ensued and beer always arrived tasting terrible. Hoppier and more alcoholic than its counterparts, IPA was designed by London's Bow Brewery to survive the half-year sea voyage to India while remaining drinkable.

Wednesday

Fact N°
1975

There are 62 Lego bricks for every person on the planet.

Ole Kirk Christiansen, the 13th son of a poor family in Denmark, lost his job and took to making miniature toys in 1932. He started with wood, but his company moved on to producing its recognizable Lego bricks in 1949. Today Lego creates roughly 600 pieces per second, and has produced roughly 400 billion throughout its history.

Thursday

Fact N°
1976

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is the deepest image ever assembled by humanity.

The image, a million-second-long exposure taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, displays about 10,000 galaxies (some of them among the first galaxies to follow from the Big Bang) and looks back about 13 billion years. Despite all that, the image covers only 11 square arcminutes -- about the size of a lowercase letter O in this sentence, and one thirteen-millionth of the entire sky.

Friday

Fact N°
1977

Teddy Roosevelt was the first to call the American seat of government "The White House."

One of the myths surrounding the building was that its white paint was meant to cover the burn marks on the structure following the Burning of Washington in 1814. After the War of 1812, the White House was colloquially referred to by that name from time to time, but its official title was simply "The Executive Mansion" until Roosevelt began putting "White House -- Washington" on official stationery in 1901.

Saturday

Fact N°
1978

Two physicists suggest that the Higgs Boson is sabotaging its own discovery, via time travel.

Two (respected, sane) physicists, Holger Bech Nielsen and Masao Ninomiya, have proposed that the Higgs Boson -- the elementary particle whose existence is only predicted, and that the Large Hadron Collider was build to investigate -- could essentially be preventing its own discovery. Dr. Nielson jokingly summarized: "(God) rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them." They posit that the theory explains in part why the Superconducting Supercollider was inexplicably canceled after billions in spending, and why the LHC met with disaster after its original startup.

Sunday

Fact N°
1979

Pneumonia is the deadliest disease in the world.

Strictly speaking, the title of "deadliest disease" belongs to a host of related lower-respiratory infections, of which pneumonia is the most prominent. These infections kill over 4 million people worldwide per year, most of whom are children, making these infections more deadly than even malaria or HIV. One of the UN's goals is a 2/3rds reduction of the associated child mortality rate by 2015.